


what earth didn't give us.

by cyanidetxxic



Category: Polygon/McElroy Vlogs & Podcasts RPF
Genre: Brian hasn't seen a technology in years other than his own flip phone, Denial of Feelings, Falling In Love, Farmer!Brian, First Kiss, First Meetings, M/M, Pat is normal Pat only he also hosts unraveled, Slow Burn, Some angst, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 16:19:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19023508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyanidetxxic/pseuds/cyanidetxxic
Summary: Brian is pulled out of his every day routine of taking care of his little farm when he meets a man from the big city. Spending every day together got them closer than they would've expected. Will Pat stay? Will Brian be finally be okay to step out of his comfortable isolation?





	what earth didn't give us.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! So I'm back with another fic while the GTA AU is on a temporary hiatus (I just have a lot of exams and didn't have much inspiration to write for it), so have this slightly bitter-sweet piece of story I thought of a while back and finally decided to write.

Brian sat on the grass and watched some birds trying to catch fish from the lake in front of him. He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and leaned back against the tree trunk behind him. He let his eyes unfocus, letting himself daydream. His mind wandered off miles away from his body, the only thing tying him to the earth being the sound of leaves rustling and birds chirping. Otherwise he was gone; he was flying high above the clouds, watching the landscape from afar. He felt so powerful, yet equally powerless. He felt free.

He opened his eyes finally and looked around for a bit. He must’ve fallen asleep as he could see the sun slowly setting in the horizon. He got up and was ready to leave when he noticed a figure standing on the other side of the lake. He couldn’t make out exact features, since it was so far away, but he could tell that the person was sitting curled up near the water, seemingly staring into their own reflection. Brian felt weird just staring at this stranger, but he found it rather peculiar to have someone around, as he had been living all by himself for years now in a small cottage that was far away from civilization. He wanted to say something to the figure, ask what they’re doing here, but they had already gotten up and were running away. Brian felt defeated and disappointed, but, as the moon started to rise, he decided it was best for him to just go home.

As Brian got into his own comfy bed, he couldn’t stop thinking about the person from across the lake, his mind filled with questions about who they were and what they were doing there. A small part of himself hoped to see them again tomorrow. Maybe this time he could reach out, he could talk to them. Brian shut off the bedside lamp and pulled the covers over himself, then, after a few tosses and turns, he finally fell asleep.

Brian woke up early in the morning and started taking care of chores. He fed the few chickens he had along with his trusty companion, a cat named Zuko. He watered the different plants in the garden, then even brought some of the fully grown tomatoes inside. Finally, he cleaned the house, made himself some food, then took a quick shower.

While Brian couldn’t call what he was doing a “proper farm”, it was still self-sustainable enough for him to be proud of it and be able to not starve himself. Really, he had all the freedom in the world in his little sanctuary that his grandma left him, and he didn’t need anything more than that.

His mind still wondered to the person from yesterday from time to time. He couldn’t help but want to know who they are. It wasn’t that weird, right? To want to know a stranger as badly as Brian wanted right then? It probably was, but Brian tried to rationalize it anyway. They could be dangerous and he had to give the right information to the police if they wanted to catch them, or something like that, anyway.

So, when Brian found himself by the lake again, he tried to make it seem like he wasn’t actively searching for someone sitting by the lake staring at themselves. Brian almost felt defeated when he saw that no one was around. Maybe it was a little early? It was barely noon after all, and he only saw the person when the sun was setting. Brian sighed and he sat down in his usual spot, then he took out the small lunch he prepared for himself.

The sun was starting to set and the figure was nowhere to be seen. Brian felt a pang of disappointment in his chest, but his brain tried to tell him it was better this way, especially if the person could’ve been dangerous at all.

As Brian was getting ready to head home, he heard faint footsteps behind him, and, when he turned, a similar figure to the one from yesterday stopped to sit by the lake. Brian felt his heart pound faster, which was stupid because he shouldn’t have been so excited to see someone he didn’t even know. Still, his feet decided to go against whatever his rational mind was telling him, and it took Brian a moment to realize he was actually heading towards the figure.

It took a little bit of time for him to get to the other side. While the lake wasn’t all that large, the path to the other side wasn’t easy to travel. When he made it there, the figure was curled up, their head resting on their knees as one of their hands seemed to draw shapes in the water. When Brian realized he’d just been staring at the person for a hot minute, he snapped out of it and slowly approached as if he was approaching some sort of wild animal that could bolt away the second it sensed him.

“Excuse me,” Brian’s voice cracked when he spoke and if he didn’t want to die before, he definitely wanted to die now. He coughed and continued. “It’s not safe to be alone around here. There isn’t anyone for miles in. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

Great job, Brian, you’ll surely scare this guy off now.

As the figure’s head raised, the hood slowly fell on their shoulders and that’s when Brian saw perhaps the most beautiful face he had ever seen in his entire life.

“My friend's house is just down the path there.” The man gestured to a different path leading to the lake. “She recently got a house there, I think it was built a year ago or something. So I think I'm fine.” He offered Brian a polite smile.

Brian was a bit stunned; not only at how stupidly hot this guy was, but also the fact that after years of living alone, he finally had a neighbour. Well… Somewhat of a neighbour. They were still pretty far from each other.

“Oh, I never knew that plot was bought. It's kind of hard to get that sort of information around here since it's pretty closed off.” Brian laughed awkwardly and shifted his weight from one leg to another.

“Don't you have, like… internet at your house or something?” The man raised a brow as he stared at Brian curiously.

“I do not. I used to, in the past before I moved here, but I just didn't want to be bothered to pay for things I would never use anyway.” Brian shrugged.

The other hummed and then extended his hand.

“I'm Pat, by the way. Pleasure to meet you.”

A more genuine smile followed after he said that.

Brian's brain almost short-circuited, because he was about to shake the hand of the most beautiful man he's ever seen, but he pushed the messy thoughts out of the way and smiles back as he shakes Pat's hand.

“I'm Brian. It's a pleasure to meet you as well,” Brian said.

Before he could ask Pat why was he here, Pat's phone seemed to go off and startled both of them. Pat pulled his hand away from Brian's and answered the phone, getting up as he did so.

“Hi, Simone, sorry. I know, I know, I said— no, I'll be right there, yeah, I— Okay, bye, see you home.” Pat gave Brian an apologetic look. “I'm so sorry, I have to bounce, I promised I'd be back to the house by dinner. See you!”

And with that, Pat took off running before Brian had the chance to say something.

Brian sat there for a moment, watching Pat's figure disappear in the distance, then looked down at the ground where Pat sat. He blinked when he noticed something was there. Some type of bright white cord with two nubs at two of the ends. Huh. It wasn't hard to put two and two together and figure out these belonged to Pat. Too late to run after him now, though. He hoped they would meet up tomorrow to hand them back to him. The thought of seeing Pat again made him smile. He shook his head then started heading home.

After doing his afternoon chores and making himself some dinner, he put the weird cord onto the bedside table, then went to sleep.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Brian woke up to a proper thunderstorm, which made Brian hurry to get ready to make sure his chickens were okay. Thankfully they were and Brian only had to keep them closed in the coop. 

He continued his day normally, as if the thunder didn't spook him every time it boomed loudly over him. He ended up sitting on his armchair, picking up one of his newer books, and reading. For hours, Brian was stuck in the imaginary world where he was a strong female lead, slaying dragons and saving dumb princes from danger, and riding on a horse. The book was quite the adventure and Brian enjoyed every bit of it.

That was until he heard a familiar voice yelled from the outside. Brian got up and looked out the window to see what all the ruckus was about, and, surprisingly, he saw Pat, soaking wet, and flailing his arms as if something Brian couldn't see before could get his attention faster. Brian immediately headed to the door and opened it up, then grabbed Pat's arm and pulled him inside the house.

After he brought Pat in, he told him to sit down on the couch and wait for him, and soon after that Brian was bringing towels and hot chocolate, handing them over to Pat..

“Jeez, what were you even doing out there? How did you get here?” Brian asked, pushing his now slightly wet hair out of his face.

“I just wanted to see the rainbow to photograph it after the rain stopped a while earlier. I didn't expect it to pick back up again, and since I was already far away and saw this house in the distance, I came over.” He then took a sip from his hot chocolate. “I expected you to answer since you did say no one else was around here.”

Brian sat down in his armchair and nodded at what Pat was saying.

“You don't have a camera, though, how would you photograph a rainbow?” Brian couldn't help but ask.

“You don't—” Pat cut himself off when he seemed to have realized something. “Right, well, our phones now are smart enough to take good pictures of anything,” Pat said as he took out this thin rectangular thing, which Brian figured it was a phone.

Suddenly, there was a flash and Brian had to rub his eyes to make the light trails go away from his vision.

“What was-” Brian got cut off by Pat shoving his phone in front of him.

“Look, it’s a really good picture,” Pat said, his smile probably brighter than every sun in the world.

Brian blinked, then took the phone and looked at the image presented. It did look really good, there was so much definition in that picture. It was fascinating.

“This is amazing. Technology did advance that much, didn’t it?” Brian smiled as he handed the phone back.

“It’s kind of crazy how you just missed all of that. How long have you been here? Do you even know what year we’re in?” Pat asked as he put his phone in the pocket of his jeans vest.

“I’ve been here for a bit over ten years. After my grandma died, I just took over, because I got sick of how loud the city life was, and I knew I would never do anything with my neuroscience degree, so… Here I am.” Brian shrugged then laughed. “I know we’re in 2019, yes. My phone has a calendar.”

Brian took out his small flip phone and showed Pat that his phone did indeed show the date.

“I sometimes lose count of the days, yes, but I don’t mind that much. I just care about providing for myself and for my family whenever they ask for stuff like eggs, fruits or vegetables.” Brian explained.

“That’s really interesting. And honestly so cool. I don’t think I could live without all the technology from nowadays. Even my job depends on it.” Pat looked very impressed.

“Really? How does your job depend on all of nowadays technology?” Brian asked curiously.

“Well… I produce video and written content for this company called Polygon, and we talk about video games generally, so… Y’know, I have to keep up. We’re uploading everything on the internet, on our own website, as well as our channel on a different website called YouTube.” Pat took his phone out again and fumbled on it for a little bit before getting up from the couch to sit by Brian’s armchair and pulled up something on the screen.

A video started playing on the phone device thing and Brian watched with furrowed brows as he tried to understand as to why this man was comparing muppets, an iconic show that parodied today's society as it's spiraling out of control, to ugly monster people.

“Did you like it?” Pat asked, his eyes hopeful as he looked up at Brian. Pat’s brows suddenly curled in confusion. “Are you.. Okay? You’re very red..”

And in that moment Brian realized he had forgotten how to breathe. He wheezed as he took a deep breath in, then coughed.

“Sorry, I-” Brian wheezed again. “I just didn’t know if it was appropriate to laugh or not, so I held my breath instead.” That was only half true, but it was also the fact that the way Pat looked at him made him forget he was a human being that needed to breathe and shit.

Pat laughed and Brian couldn’t help but think that his laugh was the equivalent of angels singing. Pat definitely seemed like an angel of some sorts.

“Of course it’s cool to laugh, dude.” Pat shook his head, then smiled at Brian, pushing his hair out of his face. “So you actually liked it?”

“Yeah! I don’t really know what it’s really talking about, and why it’s comparing the Muppets with a weird… game, I would suppose? But it’s fun nonetheless.” Brian returned a smile and he watched as Pat’s brows raised and for a moment he breathed heavily, almost panting. “Uh… are you okay?”

For a moment they looked into each other’s eyes and there was some sort of connection there, one the two of them didn’t understand yet, but felt deep within their souls. And then moments after the two burst out laughing, because the whole situation was actually pretty silly.

They took a little bit to calm down, holding onto each other as they laughed, then separated briefly when the laughter stopped.

“Do you want to watch more of these videos?” Pat asked. “It’s not like there’s much to do in this weather.”

And as if to confirm that the weather was, in fact, awful, lightning seemed to have stuck closeby, followed by loud thunder.

Brian thought for a moment, then looked at Pat.

“We can move to the couch then, so you won’t have to sit on the floor any longer.” Brian said as he got up from the armchair to move to the couch.

“Right, yeah, I do actually appreciate that.” Pat grinned and went to sit beside Brian. “Okay, so we can watch this show I do called Unraveled, I feel like that one might be more entertaining.”

“Sure, although I’m a bit worried about what that name implies.” Brian narrowed his eyes at Pat and the other looked at Brian innocently.

 

* * *

 

Hours later, Brian was with his head buried into Pat’s chest, very much asleep. The only sound in the room was their slightly unsynchronized snores. Pat somehow took most of the couch while he was lying on it, and Brian was mostly on top of him, although his right hand and leg were promptly on the floor. Pat’s phone was on the floor next to Brian’s hand, and Brian’s glasses ended up on top of his head. For a while, that was how they slept.

Brian awoke first, the sound of is rooster screaming its lungs out bringing him back to earth. He almost screamed when he realized how he slept, and he immediately moved off of Pat. When Brian realized that Pat was still in deep sleep and most likely wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, he brought a blanket and a pillow, and tucked Pat in on the couch.

By the time Pat woke up very confused, Brian already finished his morning chores and was working on preparing lunch. Since the kitchen and the living room had no separation, Brian saw Pat wake up and grinned.

“Morning, sleepyhead. Or, well, should I say… I actually don’t know what you say during noon.” Brian scrunched his nose as he tried to think, but nothing came to him.

“Uh… good day?” Pat said as he got up from the couch and scratched the back of his head. “That works, right?”

“Yeah! It definitely works.” Brian nodded. “Come and get your lunch.”

Brian set two plates on the small table which had two fairly large sandwiches. Pat offered Brian a smile as he sat on one of the two chairs while Brian went to sit on the other.

“I don’t have much, since I don’t really eat meat or anything that isn’t made in my small farm, so… I hope this is okay.” Brian said, then began chewing his lip.

“It’s cool! I think it looks amazing! And I’m starving.” Pat grabbed the sandwich and pretty much started devouring it, and Brian didn’t know if he should be repulsed or into it.

Brian ended up just smiling and eating his own sandwich in a less feral way.

After they were done eating, Pat seemed to have realized something, then quickly began searching his pockets, mumbling something not even Brian could decipher.

“My phone. Where’s my phone?” Pat finally asked.

Brian blinked for a second. “Oh! It was on the floor, so I put it on the side table by the armchair. I don’t think it has battery anymore, and I don’t have a charger for it.”

Pat immediately went to pick his phone up, tried to turn it on to confirm that he was indeed out of battery, then sighed.

“They must be worried sick about me…” Pat muttered under his breath.

“Who?” Brian asked.

“My friends. I told you, one of my friends brought me to her new summer house, and… yeah, I just kinda disappeared for a day, so they must be worried, y’know.” Pat explained as he put his phone in his pocket. “I should… Well, I should get going.”

Brian frowned, but he understood the situation.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” Brian got up and grabbed the plates to take them to the sink.

“No, I’m- I’m good. Thank you, though, I truly appreciate everything you did.” Pat did and when Brian walked up to him, he pulled him into a hug which completely took Brian off guard.

“Uh… You’re welcome! You can feel free to visit any time, really! You were a very very nice company!” Brian said maybe a bit too fast before Pat let him go. Pat gave him another one of those bright as the sun smiles that almost killed Brian.

“Then I should get going. Thank you, again!” Pat said as he headed towards the front door.

Brian followed and when Pat turned around for a moment, Brian waved at him and Pat waved back then went on his way.

 

* * *

 

The next day Brian found himself trying to teach Pat how to handle the chickens, which was fun in the most unexpected way.

What Brian had expected was making fun of Pat for being lazy and doing everything haphazardly. What Brian got instead was a very serious Pat running after chickens in the backyard, trying to gather them up, feeding them, and even managing to handle a very stubborn hen that just didn’t want to get back into the coop at the end of the day. And that was just Pat’s first lesson in farming.

The next couple of days went in a similar fashion, where Brian was showing him how to help in the farm, and Pat excitedly helped out. And every afternoon, they would go together to lay by the river, enjoying each other’s presence and not talking much.

“Hey, Pat?” One day, Brian broke the silence they got so used to. “Why do none of your friends come over?”

“Hm?” Pat turned his head to Brian. “I just never told them about you.”

“Why is that?” Brian turned on his side, his hand resting in the small space between him and Pat.

“Because I want to keep you as my little secret.” Pat said as he turned on his side as well and grabbed Brian’s hand, their fingers falling perfectly between each other.

Brian stared at Pat for what felt like forever and only realized how their faces were inching closer when Pat pulled away.

“It’s getting late. I have to go.” Pat said, that bright smile Brian grew to love.

Pat’s warmth still lingered as Brian watched him walk away.

Brian grunted as he pushed a box over to look through another one.

“I swear it was somewhere around here!” Brian whined, his hands rummaging through the box.

“I seriously can’t believe you still have one of the _original_ series Gameboy.” Pat said excitedly, watching Brian from the bottom of the ladder.

“Yeah, well I never had a reason to throw it away, you know? I didn’t think it’d be such a big deal later on.” Brian sneezed as some dust hit his nose, which also managed to reveal the sacred Gameboy. “There you are!”

As Brian got down, Pat pretty much pulled him from the ladder, hugging him tightly and spun them around.

“You are literally the best, Brian! The fucking best!” Pat cheered.

Brian couldn’t help but laugh as he tried to hold onto both the game and Pat as to not make them fall over.

“Okay, okay, I get it, you love me, now put me down please!” Brian pleaded and made a squeaking noise as Pat suddenly dropped him, only to catch him in time before he fell too hard.

“I’ve honestly never been happier.” Pat admitted as he let go of Brian before things got too awkward. “How crazy is it that one of my friends just happened to have a Gameboy charger he didn’t need?”

“Pretty crazy in my opinion.” Brian grinned, then walked to the living room where they left the charger and plugged the Gameboy in.

They both stared at the small piece of gaming history, then both cheered when the screen lit up. Brian still had his Pokemon game, and he couldn’t be more happy about it. He went to check in his dex and to his surprise, one pokemon, one sacred pokemon, was still apart of it.

“What is it, Brian?” Pat asked when he noticed Brian’s wide eyes.

“My sweet boy… my Terry… he’s still here… how?” Brian said in genuine shock.

Pat stared at him confused. “Uh… what?”

“I… okay, so I really really wanted to, like, complete my dex, you know?”

Pat nodded.

“Okay, well, I knew this guy who had the last Pokemon I needed to complete my pokedex, and to get that Pokemon he told me to give up something I love, which is a wild thing for an eight year old to say, right? Well, I had this tangela I named Terry that was basically my buddy and I cared for him deeply. That kid? He made me exchange my Terry for the last Pokemon I needed to complete it. But now he’s back in my ‘dex.” Brian explained.

“Holy shit, that’s amazing. And you still have the achievement for completing the ‘dex?” Pat asked as he looked over.

“Yeah! Still there! This is a miracle, honestly.” Brian’s smile is so big as he starts playing through the game.

Pat just watched contently. Brian didn’t even realize that Pat had his head resting on Brian’s shoulder. Still, Brian said nothing of it, and when Pat had to leave, his warmth lingered once again.

“Why did you move here?” Pat asked as he watched Brian play Pokemon Let’s Go on his Switch.

“I just got sick and tired of the outside world, y’know? It’s pretty cruel out there, but here? No one will hurt you here. Okay, maybe a chicken or two will peck your face off, but that’s the most hurt you might deal with.” Brian confessed, pulling his legs up to his chest and resting the Switch on them as he tried to navigate the game.

“Did something specific happen, though?” Pat then stopped himself and shook his head. “Sorry, that’s a bit too personal.”

“It’s… It’s fine, I-” _I trust you_ , Brian wanted to say. “Some people took advantage of me in ways that… I just don’t want to think about anymore. I grew more and more paranoid as days passed and when my grandma died and passed the house onto me, I took it as a sign to get the fuck away from everything.”

“Aren’t you lonely?” Pat looked down at Brian.

Brian looked up and smiled. “Why would I be? I have plenty of company.” Especially now that Pat is around.

When Pat left later on that afternoon, he gave Brian the tightest hug, which Brian didn’t expect, but returned nonetheless.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Pat smiled at Brian.

“I’ll see you then.” Brian returned the smile.

 

* * *

 

Brian had to hold himself back from losing it as he watched Pat try to float only to slowly sink into the water. Really, it was Pat’s face as he came back to the surface that made Brian lose it.

“This isn’t funny, Brian! I have heavy bones and I’m an old man!” Pat huffed and splashed some water in Brian’s direction.

That only sent Brian into a heavier fit of giggles, making him lose his balance and get water into his nose and mouth, which got him to choke. Pat, seeing everything unfold, started laughing as well. Brian narrowed his eyes and splashed water in Pat’s direction as hard as he could.

“This is what you get for being mean to me!” Pat said as he splashed Brian back.

Brian tried to tackle Pat into the water, but when Pat didn’t budge, he ended up only inches away from Pat’s face. They both stared at each other for moments before flushing and pulling away. The silence got awkward quickly, so Brian just splashed a bit of water in Pat’s face. Yeah. That will solve it.

Pat rolled his eyes, but he still gave Brian a smile. Brian really wanted to just sink to the bottom of the lake and never come out because that smile was infectious and it made his heart jump every single time he witnessed it.

“So… uh…” Brian started, but when he noticed that the sun was starting to disappear behind the horizon, he frowned. “You have to go, I guess.” he said sadly.

“Yeah…” Pat was frowning as well.

They both got out of the water, dried themselves off and got dressed. Pat offered Brian a sad smile as he turned to leave.

“See you tomorrow?” Brian said hopefully.

Brian hardly heard Pat’s answer, but it was nothing more than a quiet “yeah”.

 

* * *

 

Brian didn’t realize that he fell into a routine of some sorts until Pat never returned the next day. Ever since then, the days felt bland and lonely.

Lonely, huh?

He felt lonely, that was hard to admit given the fact that he had been living by himself for so many years. Yet here he was, longing to meet this strange man once more. Every day he was waiting by the lake to meet with Pat again, and every day his heart got broken a little more when Pat never showed up. After a month he stopped going. He didn’t even go to the lake to relax as he used to before he met Pat. It hurt for some reason Brian couldn’t understand.

His excitement for every chore turned into dread of having to go another day by himself. He cursed himself for growing so attached over something he should have expected to be temporary. He just wished he could’ve at least had the chance to say goodbye.

This was just unfair. It felt like a chapter in his life would never be complete, as if the author decided to leave him on a permanent cliffhanger.

It had been months since Brian took the initiative to call his sister, since she was the only one who would understand him. He ended up crying on the phone for a bit while his sister tried to comfort him.

“I’m coming over.” Laura said over the phone, the sound of her shuffling around the room signaling that she was already starting to pack her bags.

“No, no, I’m…” Brian wiped his tears away and tried to keep himself from sobbing. “I’m fine. I’m honestly a hundred percent fine. I’ll get over it, I shouldn’t have expected more than… I don’t know what I expected.”

“What’s his name again?” Laura was zipping a bag shut.

“I don’t know his full name. Just Pat. Laura, I-” Brian got cut off when he heard someone knock very loudly at the door. “How did you get here so fast, Laura, wha-”

“That’s not me, Brian, I can’t teleport.” Brian could practically hear Laura rolling her eyes.

“Who could it be, then?” Brian checked from the window to see who was at the door, but he could only see the outline of a bag and maybe an arm. “Give me a second, Laura.”

Brian slowly walked to the door and just as slowly he opened it, peeking through the small gap that formed. When he saw who was on the other side, he dropped his phone out of his hand and gasped.

“Brian?!” Laura’s panicked voice came through the phone.

Before Brian could say anything, a pair of lips locked with his, Pat’s hands threading through his hair, and Brian was pretty sure that he died and now he’s in heaven and it’s giving him everything he ever wished for. Yeah, totally, and that’s why he didn’t push Pat away.

Until he did pull away, because Laura was yelling Brian’s name through the phone and he had to pick his phone up now.

“Hey, I’m so sorry, I’m fine, I promise, I’ll call you later! Love you, bye!” And then he ended the call.

With his flip phone still open, he threateningly pointed it at Pat.

“What are you doing here?” Brian asked, his eyes narrowed.

“Well, I kind of realized I love spending time with you and I missed you really really bad, and I’m sorry? I’m sorry for disappearing?” Pat said, maybe a bit too quick, his anxiety strong enough to make even Brian cringe slightly.

“Why? You just up and left, then you come back and suddenly _kiss me_ and you expect me to forgive you like that?” Brian didn’t expect his voice to crack at the beginning and the tears that he wiped earlier had returned.

“I just… I didn’t think I’d come back, honestly. I had a bad end of a relationship when I came here, and I was scared I was growing too attached too quickly and- and-... fuck, I know, I know I majorly fucked up, I was just terrified of getting hurt again, and you don’t deserve for me to be an asshole like that.”

Brian slowly closed his flip phone as he listened to Pat’s reasoning, and then sighed loudly. He put his phone back in his pocket and pulled Pat into another kiss, but not before saying:

“You’re a huge loser, you know?”

Pat laughed and it was then when Brian realized that this was his chance to not feel so lonely anymore.

 

* * *

 

Months later, Brian found himself moving up into the city when his family agreed to take care of the farm instead. It took him a while to adjust, but Pat was there to help him through the whole transition.

He finally met Pat’s friends, which were truly as sweet and funny as he expected them to. They didn’t make fun of Brian for isolating himself, instead they found it very impressive and had plenty of questions and praises to offer.

Brian was still paranoid, and didn’t leave the house much unless he went out with Pat. It was a really slow process, yet neither of them minded.

A year later he learned how to use a camera, and with Pat’s help, he started making dumb videos for his own YouTube channel that he started at Pat’s advice. His videos weren’t long, and it was mostly snappy comedy and weird sketches, but he had fun nonetheless. He also started joining Pat on his streams and eventually had their own show called Gill & Gilbert.

That same year Pat proposed to him, and a few months later Brian’s last name would be halved for him to become Brian David Gill, although they would sometimes jokingly add a “-bert” at the end.

Brian reconnected with an old friend named Jonah, and they started making music together, even making a little podcast along with his friend and his sister called Let’s Make A Music.

His life was falling into place, he was with the man that he loved, and he couldn’t be more happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me at ohoneyno.tumblr.com


End file.
